(please excuse words that have no space in between----if you've ever read Faulkner, just think of it as a tribute)
My first day in Irkutsk was a long day.
I slept during most of the flight, in which I was seatednext to a very tall, rough-skinned man with a mustache, dressed in a pin-stripesuit, and tattoos around his fingers. He looked as if he could break a man intwo with his hands. His eyes were heavy and the last thing I remember beforewaking up to see the bright lights of Irkutsk as the plane landed. Looking atIrkutsk from the sky is like looking at the stars. There is nothing butblackness and speckled masses of light. Once landed, we exited on the tarmac.This was a first for me. The air was brisk and chilly.
Iraida, the international program coordinator for theIrkutsk State Linguistic University, met me at the baggage area. She lookedtired. It was five in the morning and she would still have to go to work thatday. The baggage area was enclosed and locked. Only passengers were allowed toenter. Once I saw my baggage, I had to show my baggage claim sticker to a womanbefore exiting the area. There was no way to steal luggage in this place. I loved it.
Iraida had a nice car. I fail to remember what it was, butit was similar to something you would see in the U.S., so no soviet ride for meso far. She turned on the radio and who other than Katy Perry to sing aboutkissing a girl. I was relieved when a Russian pop song came on. The music mademore sense with all the Russian signs and horrific driving. Lanes are notparticularly interesting here. There is no need to signal any change of lanes,only turning. Iraida swerved all over the road.
She turned down a dirt road and then a dirtier alley. I sawa brightly painted building that I hoped was the dorm and then I saw a dingybuilding with cracks in the concrete and a paint job older than me. This wasthe place. A little lobby was cut in half by a wall and a tiny window. Throughthe window were two babushkas and a lot of Russian words. I eventually was leadto my room by Iraida, where my sleepy roommate, Danya, awaited my arrival.Iraida told me that I should come to the university in the afternoon. There wasanother student, Daniel. There was a possibility that we had the same languagecourse. I was elated that I would be able to sleep even though I was barelytired.
The room is a good size. Two beds smaller than a twin, twodesks, an armoire, a corner shelf, a min-fridge, and a small television stillleave a bit of comfortable space in the middle of the room. There is also abalcony that looks like it could fall off the building. It is actually quitestable and nice.
After a brief chat with Danya, who had to wake up in a fewhours, I put on my headphones and let Iron & Wine lure me sleep. I woke up at11am and soon after, Daniel knocked on my door. He looked terribly tired and abit stressed out. I would discover him to look this way a lot as the day woreon. In an hour, we would leave for the university. I unpacked and settled in,nervous about riding my first Russian bus.
The walk to the bus stop is quite nice. There is an opensquare surrounded by small white spruce, some cottonwood, birches, and shrubs.Benches are often filled with couples or friends and a large wooden slide isoften covered with children. We walked through a pedestrian underpass to crossthe street and waited at the bus stop for a short bit before its arrival. Thebus was stuffed. Most buses have fewer seats than American buses, allowingample room for standing riders. You have to rush into the bus to claim a spotand pay at the end of the ride.
In front of me, agroup of young girls dressed in tall heels and dresses were holding onto eachother’s waists. They laughed every time the bus abruptly stopped, falling intoeach other. The seated babushkas looked up at them without any expression.
All of the sudden, the bus stopped rather harshly and thebrakes squealed until there was a loud clash of metal on metal. I flew forwardbut held onto my pole. The group of young girls fell onto some seated babushkaslaughing hysterically. I turned to see them and then I saw the tiny van with asmashed rear-end on the road. This van tried to cross the entire road but neverhad a chance. I turned to Daniel, searching for what to do, but as everyonestarted to leave the bus, we followed. A cop car was already there and Iwondered what the conversation would be like.
The group of young girls walked in front of us the entireway to the next bus stop. They tripped over broken parts of sidewalk thatturned to dirt and laughed every time. The walk was not too long and anotherbus arrived quickly. We were almost certain it was the same bus because of all theerratic braking. The bus driver sits in a confined box with wooden walls aroundhis seat. This particular one looked particularly miserable. He had a grimace Iwill never forget and almost hit a number of other cars.
We paid the bus driver and got off at what Daniel thoughtwas our stop. The stops are not announced. Danielle was disoriented and wequickly started walking in the wrong direction. From the map my programcoordinator gave me, I had a hunch, but I enjoyed the walk. Music was blaringon the streets from speakers positioned high on lamp post and cars drove bywith louder music, all the sounds competing with each other. All the while,there were these beautiful cottonwoods lining the road and a number of peoplethat each looked into my eyes.
Eventually, Daniel asked for directions from a tall, blondwoman. She directed us to follow her for a couple blocks and told us to get ona mashrutka, which looks like a mini-van. I was very nervous. A mashrutka is terriblydifficult to get in. You have to push your way to the front of the door, almostblocking those that are coming out. We missed two mashrutkas by being toopolite. The third one, I shoved my way in and got a seat in the front betweenthe driver and a passenger with a blunt, fingerless hand and a deep scar allalong the left cheek. I saw Daniel outside the mashrutka as it was pullingaway. My eyes widened as he yelled, “University!” to the driver, pointing atme.
That’s when the most incredible thing happened. Danielfollowed the mashrutka. He literally ran next to it for blocks. The two men Isat between were very impressed and made comments I could not understand. Whenthe mashrutka got to its next stop, the driver passed a number of peoplewaiting to an empty area where Daniel was sure to make it on. I was relievedand overwhelmed by his act of kindness.
When we got to the stop for the university, I saw we wereone stop short when we first got off of our bus. It frustrated Daniel but bythe looks of the area, I would never forget the stop. My university faces ahuge open square. Just to the left is a skate park with a large, incrediblemural. The open square is full of trees, benches, a fountain, carts to buydrinks, and more I have not seen. On the direct opposite side of the universityis a large hotel. The hotel and the University have rainbow decorations ontheir column facades. Later, I would learn that the music on the street, thedecorations, the mural and more were all to celeb rate the 350thanniversary of Irkutsk this year.
At this point, Daniel was terribly late to class and usheredme to simply join him for the day. This was a mistake. We walked up to thefifth floor to a small room about the size of my dorm room full of studentsfrom Korea and China facing a petite, young female professor. There was justenough room to squeeze behind the professor to the two remaining seats at thefar side of the room. The professor was taking names and information inRussian. Simply because of the pattern, I was able to gather this but when itwas my turn to talk, I was speechless. I loved this woman because of her faces.Her distress face was quite hilarious and she made it at me a lot that day.Once she realized I didn’t know any Russian, she simply went forward with theclass. Everyone needed books so we left for the library on the first floor.
In the library, the Korean students asked me my name andwhere I was from. One guy had a friend in Seattle and a couple other girlsstarted singing that New York song by Alicia Keys. They were quite funny butthey felt bad for my situation. Once they learned Daniel was from Spain, allthe girls focused on him. Before the end of the day, one of them would ask himout. It was pretty incredible.
The professor spent a long time trying to help me find aclass room. We walked from one room to another, her explaining to theprofessors that I needed to be in their class. Each one said that they had noroom for me. Her distressed face after every conversation told me everything. Ieventually had to go back to her class and endure one of the most mentallystressful two hours of my life. The professor had us read from the text,practice conversations, and memorize sentences allowed to the class. We alsohad to write a lot, which I have barely practiced compared to thespeedy-writing Korean and Chinese students. I don’t know how I survived but Idid well enough for her to say “Harasho” a number of times, which means “good”in this instance.
After the class, Daniel took me to Iraida’s office, whichwas closed for lunch even though it was 4:30pm. We decided to wait and wereable to speak to Iraida. Surprisingly, she thought I would do well in Daniel’sclass even though I had not taken any proper placement exam. Everything wouldbe worked out on Monday. Classes are set up strange. There is a posting in themain lobby of where students should go that day. Daniel and I analyzed thisposting and discovered my name to be in the listing of another classroom, onethat had denied me earlier that day. I decided that on Monday, I would simplygo to a different class and see if they care.
The bus ride home was uneventful, thank goodness. We werealmost running from our stress. I thanked Daniel a million times for everythinghe did that day and headed to my room for a brief moment alone before myroommate came home.
Danya is incredibly friendly. She is 22, from Brooklyn, andwent to school in Portland, Oregon at the Lewis and Clark University. Shestudied Russian and Chinese before graduating this year. She travelled abroadin school to Vladivostok, Russia and then received a scholarship to return thisyear to Irkutsk. She is in charge of writing a “Cheap Eats” article for theSchool of Russian and Asian Studies. This means she has to explore and eat outa lot, which sounds wonderful to me. She’s a vegetarian though, which makes theentire assignment seem quite hilarious for her to be in charge of, but with anumber of the other students’ input, it will be good.
Across the hall is Maria, a 23-year-old from Slovakia. Shegoes to school in London with Daniel and has lived there a year. She describedher move from Slovakia like this: “I had to work up the courage to put on mybackpack and just go.” She also said, with a laugh, that dating an Englishmansped up her English. Next door, Daniel shares a room with a Belgian, Andries.Across from them are two other Belgian girls, Katrien and Sara, that study atthe same university as Andries. All three Belgians are studying Polish andRussian language. They arrived in Irkutsk after riding the trans-siberian trainfor 4 ½ days.
That evening, a wild thunderstorm raced through on my way toa small market by the dorm. In this little shop, all the products are behindthe counter. The clerk must be asked for anything desired. I spoke like a childbut eventually purchased vareneeki, which has an emphasis like this: varENeeki.I pronounced it like this: varenEEki. These are vegetarian dumplings full ofpotato and onion. The clerk wanted to know where I was from. She spoke a lotbut I had no idea what she was saying.
I walked across the street to a fruit stand, where I bought 3 oranges. Rain started to pour and the thunder was like back home in Texas. Iwas stunned. By the time I returned to my building, less than a block away, Iwas soaked.
I boiled my dumplings, ate them up and passed out to Danyaand Maria watching a Russian-dubbed British show. For a moment, we heard a girlsinging in Russian. It was overwhelmingly beautiful .
Til next time when I tell you and show you photos all aboutmeeting a couple Russians, Alyona and Galya who took us all on a tour ofIrkutsk!
I slept during most of the flight, in which I was seatednext to a very tall, rough-skinned man with a mustache, dressed in a pin-stripesuit, and tattoos around his fingers. He looked as if he could break a man intwo with his hands. His eyes were heavy and the last thing I remember beforewaking up to see the bright lights of Irkutsk as the plane landed. Looking atIrkutsk from the sky is like looking at the stars. There is nothing butblackness and speckled masses of light. Once landed, we exited on the tarmac.This was a first for me. The air was brisk and chilly.
Iraida, the international program coordinator for theIrkutsk State Linguistic University, met me at the baggage area. She lookedtired. It was five in the morning and she would still have to go to work thatday. The baggage area was enclosed and locked. Only passengers were allowed toenter. Once I saw my baggage, I had to show my baggage claim sticker to a womanbefore exiting the area. There was no way to steal luggage in this place. I loved it.
Iraida had a nice car. I fail to remember what it was, butit was similar to something you would see in the U.S., so no soviet ride for meso far. She turned on the radio and who other than Katy Perry to sing aboutkissing a girl. I was relieved when a Russian pop song came on. The music mademore sense with all the Russian signs and horrific driving. Lanes are notparticularly interesting here. There is no need to signal any change of lanes,only turning. Iraida swerved all over the road.
She turned down a dirt road and then a dirtier alley. I sawa brightly painted building that I hoped was the dorm and then I saw a dingybuilding with cracks in the concrete and a paint job older than me. This wasthe place. A little lobby was cut in half by a wall and a tiny window. Throughthe window were two babushkas and a lot of Russian words. I eventually was leadto my room by Iraida, where my sleepy roommate, Danya, awaited my arrival.Iraida told me that I should come to the university in the afternoon. There wasanother student, Daniel. There was a possibility that we had the same languagecourse. I was elated that I would be able to sleep even though I was barelytired.
The room is a good size. Two beds smaller than a twin, twodesks, an armoire, a corner shelf, a min-fridge, and a small television stillleave a bit of comfortable space in the middle of the room. There is also abalcony that looks like it could fall off the building. It is actually quitestable and nice.
After a brief chat with Danya, who had to wake up in a fewhours, I put on my headphones and let Iron & Wine lure me sleep. I woke up at11am and soon after, Daniel knocked on my door. He looked terribly tired and abit stressed out. I would discover him to look this way a lot as the day woreon. In an hour, we would leave for the university. I unpacked and settled in,nervous about riding my first Russian bus.
The walk to the bus stop is quite nice. There is an opensquare surrounded by small white spruce, some cottonwood, birches, and shrubs.Benches are often filled with couples or friends and a large wooden slide isoften covered with children. We walked through a pedestrian underpass to crossthe street and waited at the bus stop for a short bit before its arrival. Thebus was stuffed. Most buses have fewer seats than American buses, allowingample room for standing riders. You have to rush into the bus to claim a spotand pay at the end of the ride.
In front of me, agroup of young girls dressed in tall heels and dresses were holding onto eachother’s waists. They laughed every time the bus abruptly stopped, falling intoeach other. The seated babushkas looked up at them without any expression.
All of the sudden, the bus stopped rather harshly and thebrakes squealed until there was a loud clash of metal on metal. I flew forwardbut held onto my pole. The group of young girls fell onto some seated babushkaslaughing hysterically. I turned to see them and then I saw the tiny van with asmashed rear-end on the road. This van tried to cross the entire road but neverhad a chance. I turned to Daniel, searching for what to do, but as everyonestarted to leave the bus, we followed. A cop car was already there and Iwondered what the conversation would be like.
The group of young girls walked in front of us the entireway to the next bus stop. They tripped over broken parts of sidewalk thatturned to dirt and laughed every time. The walk was not too long and anotherbus arrived quickly. We were almost certain it was the same bus because of all theerratic braking. The bus driver sits in a confined box with wooden walls aroundhis seat. This particular one looked particularly miserable. He had a grimace Iwill never forget and almost hit a number of other cars.
We paid the bus driver and got off at what Daniel thoughtwas our stop. The stops are not announced. Danielle was disoriented and wequickly started walking in the wrong direction. From the map my programcoordinator gave me, I had a hunch, but I enjoyed the walk. Music was blaringon the streets from speakers positioned high on lamp post and cars drove bywith louder music, all the sounds competing with each other. All the while,there were these beautiful cottonwoods lining the road and a number of peoplethat each looked into my eyes.
Eventually, Daniel asked for directions from a tall, blondwoman. She directed us to follow her for a couple blocks and told us to get ona mashrutka, which looks like a mini-van. I was very nervous. A mashrutka is terriblydifficult to get in. You have to push your way to the front of the door, almostblocking those that are coming out. We missed two mashrutkas by being toopolite. The third one, I shoved my way in and got a seat in the front betweenthe driver and a passenger with a blunt, fingerless hand and a deep scar allalong the left cheek. I saw Daniel outside the mashrutka as it was pullingaway. My eyes widened as he yelled, “University!” to the driver, pointing atme.
That’s when the most incredible thing happened. Danielfollowed the mashrutka. He literally ran next to it for blocks. The two men Isat between were very impressed and made comments I could not understand. Whenthe mashrutka got to its next stop, the driver passed a number of peoplewaiting to an empty area where Daniel was sure to make it on. I was relievedand overwhelmed by his act of kindness.
When we got to the stop for the university, I saw we wereone stop short when we first got off of our bus. It frustrated Daniel but bythe looks of the area, I would never forget the stop. My university faces ahuge open square. Just to the left is a skate park with a large, incrediblemural. The open square is full of trees, benches, a fountain, carts to buydrinks, and more I have not seen. On the direct opposite side of the universityis a large hotel. The hotel and the University have rainbow decorations ontheir column facades. Later, I would learn that the music on the street, thedecorations, the mural and more were all to celeb rate the 350thanniversary of Irkutsk this year.
At this point, Daniel was terribly late to class and usheredme to simply join him for the day. This was a mistake. We walked up to thefifth floor to a small room about the size of my dorm room full of studentsfrom Korea and China facing a petite, young female professor. There was justenough room to squeeze behind the professor to the two remaining seats at thefar side of the room. The professor was taking names and information inRussian. Simply because of the pattern, I was able to gather this but when itwas my turn to talk, I was speechless. I loved this woman because of her faces.Her distress face was quite hilarious and she made it at me a lot that day.Once she realized I didn’t know any Russian, she simply went forward with theclass. Everyone needed books so we left for the library on the first floor.
In the library, the Korean students asked me my name andwhere I was from. One guy had a friend in Seattle and a couple other girlsstarted singing that New York song by Alicia Keys. They were quite funny butthey felt bad for my situation. Once they learned Daniel was from Spain, allthe girls focused on him. Before the end of the day, one of them would ask himout. It was pretty incredible.
The professor spent a long time trying to help me find aclass room. We walked from one room to another, her explaining to theprofessors that I needed to be in their class. Each one said that they had noroom for me. Her distressed face after every conversation told me everything. Ieventually had to go back to her class and endure one of the most mentallystressful two hours of my life. The professor had us read from the text,practice conversations, and memorize sentences allowed to the class. We alsohad to write a lot, which I have barely practiced compared to thespeedy-writing Korean and Chinese students. I don’t know how I survived but Idid well enough for her to say “Harasho” a number of times, which means “good”in this instance.
After the class, Daniel took me to Iraida’s office, whichwas closed for lunch even though it was 4:30pm. We decided to wait and wereable to speak to Iraida. Surprisingly, she thought I would do well in Daniel’sclass even though I had not taken any proper placement exam. Everything wouldbe worked out on Monday. Classes are set up strange. There is a posting in themain lobby of where students should go that day. Daniel and I analyzed thisposting and discovered my name to be in the listing of another classroom, onethat had denied me earlier that day. I decided that on Monday, I would simplygo to a different class and see if they care.
The bus ride home was uneventful, thank goodness. We werealmost running from our stress. I thanked Daniel a million times for everythinghe did that day and headed to my room for a brief moment alone before myroommate came home.
Danya is incredibly friendly. She is 22, from Brooklyn, andwent to school in Portland, Oregon at the Lewis and Clark University. Shestudied Russian and Chinese before graduating this year. She travelled abroadin school to Vladivostok, Russia and then received a scholarship to return thisyear to Irkutsk. She is in charge of writing a “Cheap Eats” article for theSchool of Russian and Asian Studies. This means she has to explore and eat outa lot, which sounds wonderful to me. She’s a vegetarian though, which makes theentire assignment seem quite hilarious for her to be in charge of, but with anumber of the other students’ input, it will be good.
Across the hall is Maria, a 23-year-old from Slovakia. Shegoes to school in London with Daniel and has lived there a year. She describedher move from Slovakia like this: “I had to work up the courage to put on mybackpack and just go.” She also said, with a laugh, that dating an Englishmansped up her English. Next door, Daniel shares a room with a Belgian, Andries.Across from them are two other Belgian girls, Katrien and Sara, that study atthe same university as Andries. All three Belgians are studying Polish andRussian language. They arrived in Irkutsk after riding the trans-siberian trainfor 4 ½ days.
That evening, a wild thunderstorm raced through on my way toa small market by the dorm. In this little shop, all the products are behindthe counter. The clerk must be asked for anything desired. I spoke like a childbut eventually purchased vareneeki, which has an emphasis like this: varENeeki.I pronounced it like this: varenEEki. These are vegetarian dumplings full ofpotato and onion. The clerk wanted to know where I was from. She spoke a lotbut I had no idea what she was saying.
I walked across the street to a fruit stand, where I bought 3 oranges. Rain started to pour and the thunder was like back home in Texas. Iwas stunned. By the time I returned to my building, less than a block away, Iwas soaked.
I boiled my dumplings, ate them up and passed out to Danyaand Maria watching a Russian-dubbed British show. For a moment, we heard a girlsinging in Russian. It was overwhelmingly beautiful .
Til next time when I tell you and show you photos all aboutmeeting a couple Russians, Alyona and Galya who took us all on a tour ofIrkutsk!
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